Take your cooking completely off the grid with this portable, solar-electric oven on Kickstarter

There's a new prototype on the Kickstarter campaign trail that's designed to fill your belly in a convenient, energy-efficient way — while going completely off the grid.

The GoSun Fusion is a portable hybrid solar and electric oven that can cook family-sized meals with the help of — you guess it — the sun.

The GoSun Fusion comes from a line of GoSun products that are designed to cook in the cleanest possible way, with the kind of convenience you don't find in a typical oven or grill. However, unlike other GoSun models that are strictly solar-powered, the Fusion can also be powered by regular electricity.

"It is liberating to rely on a solar oven that works with or without the sun," says Patrick Sherwin, creator of the GoSun Fusion.

"It is liberating to rely on a solar oven that works with or without the sun"

The electric element allows for cooking anytime, combining reliability and portability. According to Sherwin, the Fusion is set to become "the most efficient electric over ever."

The inspiration for the GoSun Fusion stems from a pilot study (in which Sherwin took part) that was held in Guatemala during the rainy season.

"Every day, if you didn’t have the meal cooked by 2 or 3 pm when the rain started, you were kind of out of luck — yet most of humanity wants to eat dinner at dusk." From there the GoSun creators decided to create an off-grid cooking system that would allow people to cook any time of the day without relying completely on the weather.

With the GoSun Fusion, you can bake, boil, or fry a meal for five in about 40 minutes with just sunlight. No sun? No worries. The Fusion's high-efficiency electric heating element will get to work, consuming about the same amount of energy as a 150 watt lightbulb. For comparison, thats about 1/10th of the amount of energy used by your kitchen toaster oven.

The Fusion needs no fuel, is lightweight and portable (weighing only 10 pounds), and apparently stays cool to the touch on the outside, leaving no risk for fires or other catastrophes (like accidentally burning a finger.)

Image: gosun

"This is really the first time that electric cooking has ever been portable."

"This is really the first time that electric cooking has ever been portable," says Sherwin. "If you’re off grid cooking, you’re generally burning wood or gas or charcoal. And with off-grid electric it usually means you would need a generator or a very long extension cord. But then essentially you’re not off-grid. In the case of the GoSun Fusion, you can actually remain off-grid completely with a portable lithium power bank."

The lithium power bank Sherwin speaks of weighs about two pounds and can fit in your pocket, yet is powerful enough to make an entire meal for a family of five.

GoSun Fusion Lithium PowerBank

Image: gosun

Electricity can be drawn from the PowerBank, some car or boat batteries, a cigar lighter plug, solar panels, and pretty much anything that supports 150 watts at 12 volts.

“The way our technology works is a vacuum, but there’s two layers of glass. The outer layer is clear, so sunlight goes through it, and the inner layer is coated to absorb light and turn it into heat," says Sherwin. "It’s essentially a greenhouse effect, in that the vacuum between those two layers makes a perfect insulator, because heat is accumulating and trapped.”

Image: gosun

"This is actually looking to be the lowest cost solution for providing off grid cooking all day every day."

According to Sherwin, the same type of solar-electric technology is being piloted in Peru under a government-led program for communities that are off the grid.

"This is actually looking to be the lowest cost solution for providing off grid cooking all day every day," Sherwin says

But no, you don't have to completely give up the grid for the GoSun Fusion to be worth your while.

"Off the grid" can mean different things for different people and there are definitely a bunch of temporary off-grid occasions where the GoSun Fusion would be super convenient. Off-grid can mean being out on the boat, road-tripping in an RV, or going camping. The GoSun Fusion seems pretty invaluable for people who love living outdoors or even people who just like to be prepared in the case of a disaster or limited power supply.

Image: GoSun

“I think that people don’t yet realize the value that we’re putting forward," says Sherwin. "They don’t realize how this would benefit them and how much easier their life would become if they stopped burning stuff and carrying around fuel.”

Though funding goals have been met, you can still back the GoSun Fusion and hop on some early-bird deals that will get you a special price on the GoSun Fusion and accessories, should it go into production.

Pledging just $1 will guarantee you're kept in the loop as far as the GoSun Fusion's progress, and $299 or more will get you on the list to receive your very own GoSun Fusion if everything goes according to plan. Hurry though, since there's a limited supply of early-bird offers.

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